Louisville mayor encourages his community to ‘lean on each other’ hours after 911 calls reveal the chaotic moments of bank mass shooting

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN

Louisville’s mayor called on his grieving community to seek comfort in each other during a vigil Wednesday hours after officials released 911 calls revealing the horrific moments of a mass shooting that left five dead and eight wounded.

As more distressing details emerge about Monday’s shooting at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, scores of residents and officials gathered Wednesday evening to mourn publicly the employees gunned down at their workplace by a coworker.

“It’s important that we take time to acknowledge those losses and what they mean for us as people and as a community,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said during the vigil at the Muhammad Ali Center Plaza. “So, that later we can gather our energies and focus on preventing these tragedies.”

Greenberg noted the heartbreaking impacts of gun violence in his city beyond Monday’s carnage, which unfolded less than a mile from where the vigil was held Wednesday.

“There will be a time to act. To take steps in honor of those we’ve lost and to channel our grief and pain into meaningful action. That day is coming,” the mayor continued. “Today is to mourn, to lean on each other and support each other.”

The mayor’s remarks came just hours after Louisville police released fearful 911 calls reporting the shooting, which began at the bank Monday morning around 8:30 a.m. before it was open.

Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, opened fire and killed five colleagues while livestreaming online the bloodshed before a responding officer fatally shot him. Of the eight people who were wounded, a 26-year-old police officer remains in critical condition after being shot in the head, requiring brain surgery.

The 911 calls offer a glimpse of what was happening during the terrifying nine minutes of the attack, which became one of at least 145 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

Fear, panic and pandemonium can be heard from several witnesses who called 911, reporting the shooting from both inside and outside the bank early Monday morning in downtown Louisville, Kentucky’s most populous city of more than 620,000 residents.

At some point, a woman who identified herself as an employee of a different Old National Bank branch told the 911 operator she saw the massacre happen in real time while she was on a video call with colleagues at the scene.

“How do you know you have an active shooter on site?” the operator asked.

“I just watched it. I just watched it on a Teams meeting. We were having a board meeting,” she said. “I saw somebody on the floor. We heard multiple shots and people started saying ‘Oh my God,’ and then he came into the board room.”

Shooter’s mother called 911 minutes after massacre began

Another 911 call came from the gunman’s mother, who expressed her shock and confusion and said her son was headed to the bank with a gun.

“My son might be (redacted) has a gun and heading to the Old National on Main Street here in Louisville,” she said. “This is his mother. I’m so sorry, I’m getting details secondhand. I’m learning about it now. Oh my Lord.”

The woman said her son “apparently left a note” about the incident. “We don’t even own guns. I don’t know where he would have gotten a gun.”

The mother’s call was placed at 8:41 a.m., roughly 10 minutes after the shooter used a legally purchased AR-15-style rifle to carry out the rampage. It took one minute for him to complete the killings, one law enforcement official told CNN.

In seconds, Joshua Barrick, Juliana Farmer, Tommy Elliott, Deana Eckert and James Tutt were shot and killed, police said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at the vigil that Elliott, a senior vice president at the bank, was one of his closest friends.

“I’ll admit that while I am not angry, I am empty. And I’m sad. And I just keep thinking that maybe we’ll wake up,” Beshear said, his voice breaking.

“What I know is, I just wish I’d taken an extra moment, made an extra call, tell him how much I care about him. And I know we are all feeling the same. But I also know they hear us now. And that they feel our love,” Beshear continued.

911 calls reveal witness accounts

The terror of the shooting was also felt by people outside of the bank as they witnessed police respond to the scene and exchange fire with the gunman.

A man standing across the street from the bank called 911 and reported seeing an officer go down and not move after getting shot.

“I just wanted to make sure you understood that there was an officer down,” the man told the dispatcher.

“I’ve been watching him consistently, I haven’t seen a foot or anything moving,” he said, adding, “He went down right away when the bullets started firing.”

Another man called 911 and said, “We have an active shooter in our building,” identifying the assailant as a bank employee.

“Get here now! We need somebody now!” the caller said.

A man fled the building, took shelter at a nearby dental office and called 911 to plead for help. “I just saw a shotgun as he was coming around the corner,” he said. “People have been shot.”

Other 911 calls were placed by confused employees who were in the building at the time of the shooting but did not know whether it was safe to escape. “We’re tucked under a desk right now,” said a caller, who asked for the status of the situation.

Bodycam footage show gunfire exchange

On Tuesday, Louisville police released bodycam video showing the officers’ response to the mass shooting.

The public footage begins with a video from Officer Nickolas Wilt, who drove up to the scene with his training officer, Cory “CJ” Galloway.

As Wilt ran toward the gunshots that officers faced upon arrival, he was shot in the head, police said. The released version of Wilt’s footage cuts off before he is shot.

Galloway’s body camera footage shows him taking fire and then scrambling down some stairs to a safe position behind a planter. He tells other officers he can’t see the gunman but notes the gunman is shooting through windows in the front of the bank, the video shows. At some point, Galloway was also shot.

The gunfire shattered the bank’s lobby glass windows, giving officers a view of his location, Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said.

As other officers arrived on scene, Galloway shot and killed the gunman from the steps in front of the bank, the video shows.

“I think I got him down! I think he’s down!” Galloway said, the video shows. He then advanced toward the building and directed others to check on his fallen colleague. “Suspect down. Get the officer!”

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CNN’s Sara Smart, Andy Rose, Celina Tebor, Linh Tran, Curt Devine and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.